Late break goes Buhler's way in OT soccer tie

BUHLER - Buhler was about a minute away from suffering its first loss in three weeks.

Rose Hill had just broken a scoreless deadlock with Michaela Cantrell's goal in the 75th minute Thursday evening at Wheatland Park.

But a late break managed to go the Crusaders' way.

With the Rockets opting to hold out on defense after their late score, Buhler appeared to kick the ball out of bounds on the west sideline with 40 seconds left. The sideline referee signaled that it was Rose Hill's ball but, with no affirmation from the head referee, the Crusaders picked up the ball, threw it in and kept the game going.

The Rockets tried to scramble back on defense after having pushed forward following the out-of-bounds signal, but Kylee Ingalls took a stellar feed from Elle Frederickson and snuck a shot past Rose Hill goalkeeper Meredith Bartley to tie the game 1-1 and force overtime.

The teams played two extra 10-minute periods but to no avail. Instead, Rose Hill frittered away what looked like a surefire win and Buhler escaped with its third tie of the season.

"I wasn't real sure about that call but you have to play it all the way to the whistle," said Buhler coach Miriam Lane, referring to the late cross-up in possession. "We obviously did and they didn't."

Ingalls took advantage of the late numbers mismatch for Buhler (4-5-3). After receiving Frederickson's feed, the freshman sprinted toward the goal and caught Bartley too far out of the net when she slid her shot around her.

"Elle gave me a perfect ball. I couldn't ask for more," Ingalls said. "If it wasn't for that pass, it would've never happened. It was great."

Rose Hill (3-8-1) got too caught up with the sideline call and lost a chance to win back-to-back games for only the second time this season.

"What happened was the ball went out of bounds. The referee over here flagged it our way so all of our girls moved up," Rose Hill coach Mike Terrell said. "(Buhler) picked the ball up and threw it in and the head referee didn't see (the flag). When our girls are pushed up, they sent a through-ball, obviously behind us a little bit, we left them on site and they did a good job of finishing."

The Rockets had seemingly taken the game with Cantrell's goal. Off a great assist from senior midfielder Alia Khalidi, the sophomore fired a straight shot into the left side of the goal with Buhler goalkeeper Josie Williams out of position with 5:20 left in regulation.

The goals came after both teams struggled to string together offensive sequences for the first 75 minutes of the match. Buhler managed 11 shots on goal in the first half while playing with a steady 20-mile-per-hour wind out of the south, but only had a couple near-misses. Rose Hill had fewer shots on goal playing with the wind after halftime, but put together better looks.

Between the two overtimes, Buhler had a 5-2 edge in shots on goal but neither team found the back of the net in the final 20 minutes.

The outcome was a letdown for the Rockets.

"You can't base a game off a referee," Terrell said. "Our defense should've been ready. It was a good goal by their team and it's part of the game. You've got to count on the refs making mistakes like everybody makes mistakes, so it's nobody's fault but our own. We weren't ready."

For Buhler, it's not the result they hoped for but better than the alternative.

"It's nice to get out of a loss but, I mean, a W's a W and a tie is not a win," Ingalls said. "We're going to keep fighting and bounce back from this and get a win."

The Crusaders will get their next chance on this Thursday's home game against AVCTL rival McPherson.